Ramblings on bookish matters. Horror and fantasy have the lion’s share, but not exclusively. Occasional interviews, art posts and bumblings.

Thursday, June 4, 2009

The Asgard Saga

My greatest passion is reading and my favorite genre is fantasy, but that’s something I already said and it doesn’t need to be repeated. However, among other little (or bigger) pleasures I have is music. Well, I am not listening music as often as reading books, watching a movie, a football game or searching for beautiful fantasy art, but I enjoy spending moments with the music I like. And here I tend to go with the musicians I already know, from my high-school and college days, and more often I listen to their older or newer albums. One of such band is Manowar (oh, fond memories :)).

The other day I discovered a new project of Manowar, one which comes as a very pleasant surprise. It is a collaboration between Manowar and the German fantasy author, Wolfgang Hohlbein for a project entitled The Asgrad Saga and which will try to create the biggest and most spectacular fantasy adventure. The Asgard Saga is based on the Norse mythology and features the gods Odin and Thor and besides books written by Wolfgang Hohlbein and music composed by Manowar will span in other medias as well, video games, comics, movies and internet communities. The fans are a living part of this project having the possibilities to contribute with their fiction or stories, but with art, photos or songs too.

Things are already moving, Wolfgang Hohlbein is writing the first book of The Asgard Saga and Manowar is recording new songs which will be performed in premiere at the upcoming Magic Circle Festival III (18th of July in Loreley, Germany), and with the launch of The Asgard Saga website, site where you can find news, videos and a building community. I have to say that this project sounds really interesting and captured my imagination almost at once. I’ll certainly watch the future development of The Asgard Saga, because fantasy and Manowar appeal greatly to me :)

ABOUT THE AUTHORS (quoted from The Asgard Saga website):WOLFGANG HOHLBEIN is Germany´s most successful contemporary author. He had his major breakthrough with the internationally acclaimed children´s fantasy book „MAGIC MOON“ („MÄRCHENMOND“). Regarded as the trailblazer for fantasy and the new genre „Phantastik“ in Germany, he has published over 200 books to date, available in numerous languages all over the world. He has sold more than 35 million copies and can frequently be found on the best-selling book lists. A master in different genres, from thriller to sci-fi, from children´s books to his favorite genres of fantasy and history, Wolfgang Hohlbein has been a passionate fan of Norse mythology for decades.

MANOWAR - In contemporary music history, the band MANOWAR is an icon in the genre of heavy metal. The Kings of Metal, as their fans have named them, have created 13 albums, have been awarded 6 gold records and have sold over 8 million records. They have produced DVDs that are a must for any MANOWAR fan’s collection. Their outstanding live performances are not only loud (even though they hold the world record as “the loudest band in the world”) but testament of Eric Adams as one of the best vocal artists in metal history. The band’s allegiance to their fans has earned them a loyal following all over the world.

Cool article. The Asgard Saga is very interesting. There's a couple of sites with relevant information that you could link to. www.asgard-saga.com and Neil Johnson's Youtube account (Neiljohnson666), he has just posted another sneak preview of the new Asgard songs.

Jen, there was a time (in high-school) when "Pleasure Slave" was enjoyed in the fullest (because of the lyrics) :DYou can find many songs with great lyrics and I find "The Triumph of Steel" to be my favorite because of this. Especially "Achilles, Agony and Ecstasy in Eight Parts".

Johan, thank you very much. And thank you for the links as well, they're very useful :)